Revisioning the Civil War: historians on Counter-Factual Scenarios

Historians have long been instructed not engage in what if history. Yet for all the facts, dates, and personalities of the historical record, humans seem just as preoccupied with what did happen in the past as with what did not. This book engages in counter factual history not only to satisfy that very human need to answer what if but also to learn more about the events of the Civil War. Could the South have won the war if Lincoln never ascended to the presidency? Could Confederate forces have mustered enough strength to take Little Round Top during the battle of Gettysburg? And would Southern Reconstruction have assumed a different tenor if not for the actions of John Wilkes Booth?

review of Revisioning the Civil War: historians on Counter-Factual Scenarios, by Bresnahan, Jim, Civil War Book Review, (Spring 2006).